Posts Tagged ‘wireless access for health’

CHITS wins Best Health Market Innovation Award in RP

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

Makati, Philippines – The Community Health Information Tracking System or CHITS, the country’s first electronic medical record system for government health facilities, shares its triumph with public health workers upon winning the “Best Health Market Innovation Award” in last night’s Galing-Likha Kalusugan Awards at the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel Intercontinental Manila.

Department of Health Secretary Enrique Ona, Presidential Sister Aurora Corazon Aquino-Abellada, Mr. Reiner Gloor, President of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines, and Dr. Alejandro Herrin, Chair, Project Steering Committee of the Galing Likha Kalusugan Awards presented the award. Dr. Portia Fernandez-Marcelo, Director of UP Manila National Telehealth Center (NTHC), along with the CHITS project manager Dr. Marie Irene Sy, and project coordinator Noel A. Bañez, RN received the award. In her acceptance speech, Dr. Marcelo emphasized the role of public health workers as the “real” champions in improving health care delivery through CHITS.

CHITS was given the award due to its significant contribution to improving health care delivery in government health centers. Nurses and midwives who usually record health data on paper were trained to use the system to generate timely reports for DOH national vertical health programs. With the persistence of its program implementers, delays for accessing of health data were minimized giving more time for health workers to give care to patients at the health center.

“Kung hindi tayo, sino? Kung hindi ngayon, Kailan pa? (If not us, then who? If not now then when?) was Dr. Marcelo’s bold statement after describing CHITS’ success in revolutionizing record-keeping in government health centers. It has been recorded that CHITS has surpassed challenges in making the system work with most public health workers who do not know how to use computers.

CHITS, along with Tarlac’s Wireless Access for Health (WAH), NKTI Hemodialysis Center-Fresenius Medical Care Lease Agreement, and the Franchise Networks of Generics Pharmacies, topped other  117 health programs in health care service delivery, financing, facilitation, regulation, and promotion that have creatively address problems that plague health care in the Philippines.

The award was given by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) in partnership with the Center for Health Market Innovation (CHMI) to innovative health programs that have changed how health care transactions are delivered in the market place.

CHITS implementers underwent a tedious process of revalidas and interviews by the PIDS screening committee and several health experts in the country. From the 117 programs, CHITS was shortlisted to 46 health projects and down to top 20 outstanding health programs.  The top four programs hailed as the “Best Health Market Innovation” were chosen based on;

  • Impact on many agents or principals with the overall effect deemed to be positive for the society;
  • Sustainability for the purpose of replication and implementation on a larger scale;
  • Pro-poor orientation to meet the health needs of the people in lower income groups and those with insufficient access; and
  • Adoption of appropriate technology that is interesting, unique and pioneering.

NTHC not only brought home the bacon with CHITS but also with the BuddyWorks Telehealth Project entering Top 20. Ms. Lucille Nieverra, World Health Organization Representative from the Philippines, lauded Buddywork’s promise “to deliver health care despite barriers of distance” in her opening message.

NTHC also co-received the Best Health Market Innovation Award for the Wireless Access for Health with the Provincial Government of Tarlac, RTI international, United States Agency for International Development, Smart Communications, Inc., Tarlac State University, and the National Epidemiological Center and Information Management Service of DOH in scaling up the use CHITS  in the province of Tarlac.

CHMI is an international global network that researches and documents innovative health programs around that have significantly changed how health is delivered in the marketplace. CHMI puts importance to projects that can be scaled up and replicated in other regions of the world.

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CHITS makes public-private partnerships possible

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

Moncada, Tarlac, Philippines –- The University of the Philippines Manila – National Telehealth Center’s Community Health Information Tracking System (CHITS) made history as it forged partnerships between the public and private sectors through the Wireless Access for Health (WAH) project initiative launched last June 22, 2010.

“It has been a long time but definitely worth the wait,” said Dr. Alvin Marcelo, director of the UPM-NThC and national program coordinator for CHITS. “This is just the beginning. The transformation process for the national health information system will begin at the grassroots and CHITS is helping LGUs achieve that.”

CHITS was a key component that brought the stakeholders together and WAH “leveraged their expertise and resources in public health, medical care, technology, and training in creating an electronic health record system that meets the needs of health care decision makers on varying levels, ranging from midwives to doctors to policy makers,” said the province’s health office and Qualcomm Inc.

As an open-source, web-based Electronic Health Record system specifically designed for government health centers, CHITS has been expanded to support data collection and reporting for all 23 of the regularly used indicators in the Department of Health’s Field Health Service Information System (FHSIS). Data submitted to the FHSIS through CHITS is used for policy analysis and planning at all levels of the public health system as it improves access to quality patient records for clinicians and quality data.

“CHITS improves patient care and access to public health information by consolidating data captured during patient visits into reports for health care workers in four health units in the Tarlac region of the Philippines,” stated Dr. Ricardo P. Ramos, chief of the Tarlac Provincial health unit.

The project has trained 40 midwives and nurses at the rural health units in Gerona, Moncada, Paniqui, and Victoria to use computers for the first time. Utilizing CHITS has “improved patient care and more efficient patient visits” as the time needed to search for records is reduced to just seconds. The ability to easily view, record and share patient information simultaneously across multiple computers within a health clinic allows clinicians to complete patient consultations earlier, resulting in increased capacity to provide further support to community health workers.

Dr. Ramos continued, “The system’s accurate and timely submission of health data is important in helping the government to identify and prevent disease outbreaks across the Philippines.”

“Good health is fundamental to our lives. The use of electronic health record systems improves patient care and public health by making it easier for health care workers to both record and report patient information,” said John Stefanac, vice president of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm Southeast Asia and Pacific.

“We congratulate the University of the Philippines Manila – National Telehealth Center for being the pioneering force behind a homegrown systematic health information recording system that is CHITS,” said Myra Emata-Stokes, chief of The U.S. Agency for International Development’s Program Resources Management during the launch.

The project initiative event highlighted the ceremonial turnover of the transmission of the FHSIS report to the Department of Health by the project partners including Tarlac Governor Victor Yap, Dr. Nemesio T. Gako of the Department of Health, Dr. Ricardo P. Ramos of Tarlac Provincial Health Office, Dr. Isidro C. Sia of the University of the Philippines Manila, Dr. Glenard T. Madriaga of the Tarlac State University, John Stefanac of Qualcomm Inc., Myra Emata-Stokes of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Orlando B. Vea of Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART) and Moncada town Mayor Benny Aquino.

The project initiative was made possible through the collaboration of public-private partners: agencies of the Philippines Department of Health, including the National Epidemiology Center, the Information Management Service and the Center for Health Development for Region 3, local government units in Tarlac, the University of the Philippines Manila-National Telehealth Center (UPM-NThC), Qualcomm’s Wireless Reach initiative, RTI International, Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART), Tarlac State University,  and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

CHITS was first used in May 2004 in Lagrosa Health Center in Pasay City. It is now in 36 health centers around the country.

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